Mr. Avison had never liked Ephraim, although no one, except perhaps the object of his dislike, had any cognizance of the fact. The Banker, in matters of dress and personal appearance, was one of the most fastidious of men, whereas Ephraim was careless to the verge of slovenliness. His clothes were of coarse material and badly made; one collar and one pair of cuffs were made to do duty for a week; while his necktie was usually either awry, or had its ends loosely flying. Both his nails and his teeth would have repaid more attention than he chose to bestow on them, while his lank, black hair, which he wore several inches longer than is customary nowadays, only tended to accentuate the general untidiness of his appearance. All these things, each one a trifle in itself, had yet, when taken in the aggregate, an irritating effect on the nerves of Mr. Avison. Then there were those terrible ears of his, and his peculiar mode of progression--although, of course, the fellow could not help it--something between a hop and a skip when unassisted by his stick. Taking him all in all, the Banker desired to see as little as possible of Ephraim Judd. But, on the other hand, Ephraim was one of the best of clerks, industrious, painstaking, conscientious. Mr. Avison told himself that it would never do--that it was contrary to all his principles--to allow personal prejudices to stand in the way of doing what was right by the other. It may be that he felt the more determined to deal with him in a thoroughly just spirit because he was not without his secret doubts whether that was altogether the spirit in which he had dealt with John Brancker. Accordingly, the Banker now proceeded to inform Judd that he might consider himself as being permanently installed in the position lately filled by Mr. Howes, while Frank Derison was to succeed Ephraim. A substantial increase of salary would follow in each case as a matter of course. Both the young men were profuse in their professions of thanks, which, however, Mr. Avison deprecated with a gentle motion of his hand. Then he said: "If you can see your way, Judd, if you really can see your way to pay a little more attention to the details of your attire, and--and to your personal appearance generally, upon my word, I shall esteem it a favor." There was something that verged on the pathetic in the way he spoke. Then he added: "That will do for the present, Judd. Derison, I want a word with you before you go." Ephraim left the room with a very red face, and a tingling sensation about his ears as if someone had soundly boxed them. Frank turned not red but white. Which of his little peccadilloes, he asked himself, was he going to be "called over the coals" about?